Aircraft carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Germany compelled to return to Washington as a result of ‘mechanical difficulty’

A navy plane transporting Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Munich Safety Convention in Germany was compelled to return to Washington Thursday evening after it encountered a “mechanical difficulty.” 

“This night, en route from Washington to Munich, the aircraft on which Secretary Rubio is flying skilled a mechanical difficulty,” State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated in an announcement. 

“The aircraft has circled and is returning to Joint Base Andrews,” she added, referring to the Maryland air base simply exterior Washington, DC. 

“The Secretary intends to proceed his journey to Germany and the Center East on a separate plane,” Bruce stated. 

The mechanical difficulty apparently needed to do with the cockpit windshield on the Air Power’s Boeing C-32 aircraft and occurred about 90 minutes after take-off. 

Axios reported that the windshield had a crack in it however didn’t pose “a security concern,” citing a US official. 

Flight monitoring web sites confirmed that Rubio’s aircraft abruptly circled over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Maine, and maintained an altitude of about 10,000 toes because it headed again to Joint Base Andrews. 

Senate Overseas Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) was additionally aboard the plane.

It’s unclear if the aircraft change will delay the high-stakes Friday morning assembly Rubio is ready to have in Munich with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, throughout which discussions on easy methods to finish the practically three-year struggle between Russia and Ukraine are anticipated to happen. 

The mechanical difficulty follows a spate of current crashes involving navy plane. 

An  $81 million Air Power F-35 fighter jet crashed throughout a coaching train at Eielson Air Power Base in Alaska late final month, and earlier this week, a Navy EA-18G Growler plummeted into California’s San Diego Harbor. The pilots of each planes had been capable of safely eject earlier than the crashes. 

On Jan. 29, a US Military helicopter flying alongside the Potomac River in Washington, DC, collided with an American Airways jet touchdown at Reagan Nationwide Airport, killing 67 folks.